Fernie 11 Week Instructor Course 16/17 - Week 8

The good times keep rolling in Fernie on our season long instructor course. This week Heather has enjoyed some seriously deep powder conditions and spent a memorable night camping under the stars in a hand-build snow cave during our winter camping experience.

One of the great things about the Nonstop instructors is they’ll alter the teaching schedule if there’s awesome conditions to ride — and that’s exactly how the start of this week played out! We had a decent amount of powder to enjoy so we headed up in search of deep lines through the trees with our instructor Alex. On Tuesday we focussed on improving our timing and coordination skills by sliding through the many tight mountain bike trails around Fernie. Although challenging, this terrain really improves your quick judgement, forcing you to make turns, which helps with overall board control, and if you nail your timing and change that edge quickly in preparation for the next turn it feels like an old school roller-coaster; super fun!

Conditions on Wednesday were nothing short of dreamy! In the morning it was a full white-out, so myself and a handful of buddies decided to practice our switch riding on the lower mountain owing to the forgiving new layer of snow. Switch is feeling a lot more normal for me now, and I managed to ride a couple of runs entirely switch. I decided to cut loose from the group in search of some powder on the upper mountain later in the morning. It was snowing so much that the accumulation on my knees on the way up was enough to make a decent sized snowball! I lapped the Elk and Bear lifts a few times and was amazed to find that the tracks I’d made on the previous run had been filled in by the falling snow, some of the best turns were to be found on the sides of even the most popular slopes. After an early lunch we rushed out to find clearing skies and empty runs chocked full of powder! Myself and buddies, Fred and Javier made a plan to head into Cedar Bowl and hit ‘Blueberry’. Unfortunately when we reached the top of the Bear Chair, patrol had just closed Cedar Bowl anf the Lizard traverse beyond the first run ‘Arrow’, owing to high avalanche risk - we even witnessed a couple of small natural slides. Plan B wasn’t bad at all however, Arrow was full of light powder to enjoy!

On Thursday we had a bit of fun with an ollie competition. It was a 3-strikes-and-your-out approach that involved an ever climbing bamboo beam on the Mighty Moose beginner slope! I love these mini events that the instructors organise, there’s always surprises, laughs and everyone really goes for it, it’s a great progression tactic! I managed to clear the 4-fist height but was foiled by 5. By the last round the beam was at waist height and the guys were bringing their A-game! (I also had my wrist cast removed on Thursday night, so it was an all round stellar day!)

Friday had 20cm of fresh snow in some locations, so instead of doing teaching sessions, all of the groups went after it owing to the fact that conditions are changing next week and it could be the last of the powder for this season *sadface*. That evening we enjoyed some drinks around a bonfire in the woods! 

Saturday was the MORE activity we were all looking forward to: winter camping! Nonstop Operations Director Dave, led a group of us just beyond the resort boundary to an area called ‘Mammoth Droppings’, where we’d first construct then spend the night in a snow hole! After a mildly perilous lift unload with our massive packs, then a short hike, we arrived at our plot and staked our claims. It was a solid 3 hours of hard digging, stamping, shaping, sawing and shovelling but it was awesome to see our cave take shape and feel more relaxed about having a place to sleep that night! After everyone had finished constructing their accommodation we met around the fire for dinner and toasted marshmallows. Was it the best nights sleep I’d ever had? Nope. Was it one of the most memorable? For sure! After an early wake up call from Dave, we packed up and headed down for a well needed cup of tea at the base. Snowboarding with a heavy pack was a bit precarious, but first tracks on ‘Falling Star’ was an easy compromise.

I may or may not have been found curled up in the foetal position under a woolly blanket at 2pm on Sunday afternoon.

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